Coach FEATURE: Meet Linda Dobson MCC, MA ABSc - Leadership

We continue to meet our fellow coaches - and build coach community with these "Meet the Coach" features! This month we meet Linda Dobson, an MCC Leadership and Conflict Coach. She is a longtime advocate of conflict resolution communication techniques and process, loves to laugh - and has a book coming out early next year! Read on to learn more...

About Linda Dobson MCC, MA ABSc - Leadership:

From: Salt Spring Island and Vancouver, BC, Canada

Business name: Linda Dobson and Associates

Describe your coaching business in one sentence: In my role as a Leadership/Executive Coach, I partner with leaders to stretch into becoming the person others will follow. AND as a Certified Conflict Coach I help people successfully navigate personal and professional conflict, using the Conflict Coaching Roadmap™.

Meet Linda:

QUESTION 1: What one book should every coach read - and why?

Co-Active Coaching - I trained with the Coaches Training Institute in their early days, and was profoundly changed by their emphasis on values based living. Almost two decades later, I can still pick up this book and find a new insight! I also love William Ury's "Getting to Yes With Yourself"!

QUESTION 2: Which website do you visit the most?

Google search engine, for their research engine. I don't think we can ever be complacent as coaches - and need to consistently search for up-to-date research to enhance our practice! I enjoy the "Podcast Addict" App, where I listen to coaching blogs. My fav. at the moment is "Team Coaching"!

QUESTION 3: Whom do you admire most?

I have been influenced by many powerful individuals! These include watching diminutive Mother Teresa enter a 'crowded to the roof' arena and feeling closer to the spiritual universe than ever before (Presence). And also watching my favorite heroes - those little kids in Children's Hospital struggling each day to surmount the cancer that threatens their lives with persistence and courage. I am really in awe!

QUESTION 4: What's your vision for your life? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Help people, teams and organizations build capacity to embrace the INEVITABLE conflicts of work and life! Yes! We can build greater resilience, capacity and engagement when differences threaten the stability of our home, work, communities and nations.

QUESTION 5: What is your "Big Project" at the moment?

My BIG PROJECT is to complete and publish my upcoming book "Coach the Conflict - The Conflict Coaching Roadmap for Resolving Differences in Work and Life" (due out Spring 2019). Whoop-whoop! My decades of experience as a mediator AND leadership coach blend the best of conflict resolution theory and professional coaching practice. The result? Strategic process for resolving differences.

QUESTION 6: What has been your favourite coaching moment so far?

I love to laugh with my clients - even in the most challenging or purposeful conversations. One time, after about 15 minutes, a client reported that "something was different in our coaching session today". Curious, I asked what the difference was, and they said, "We haven't laughed yet!" Fifteen years later, I still build laughter into my sessions 😊

QUESTION 8: What do you love most about being a coach?

Soooo many things! Seeing clients embrace the changes they need to make to become authentic and lead fulfilled lives, constantly stretching myself and developing strategic leaders!

QUESTION 9: Tell us a secret about your life...

One of my children has had cancer twice - and survived to build a beautiful life.

QUESTION 10: If you could change one thing in our world, what would it be? And how would you go about it?

To create understanding of how we can communicate during conflict to resolve differences. My decades of experience confirms that when we speak "human to human" (as opposed to adversary to adversary), and articulate our own as well as listen to each other's needs and values, insight and connection occur.

How would I go about it? One person at a time, but also working with teams, organizations and communities too - to help them follow the Conflict Coaching Roadmap™!

NOTE: If you're interested in hearing about Linda's book when it launches, email her: linda at coachtheconflict.com - and she will add you to the notification list!